Mary Mary

The Girl in the Locked Room is Mary Downing Hahn for sure.  I always warn kids that this is not one of those authors who tricks you, where the ghost is just Uncle Bill in a sheet, like a Scooby Doo episode.  This stuff is for real scary.  And that is what makes MDH so awesome.  I have to say I couldn't get into this one as quickly as I have been sucked in to her books before but it was probably just where I was at the time.  Good stuff. 

Crows

Crows.  as I have mentioned before, some people have a thing about crows.  One for Sorrow has this poem, called Counting Crows. One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret, never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a time of joyous bliss.  
Is it weird that a really creepy ghost story from Mary Downing Hahn is a joyous blissful thing for me?  I don't know, but it is!  MDH is one of the most talented, creep-tastic, excellent writers ever.  And this new one is no exception.  Not for someone looking for a joke ending or assurances that creepiness is not real.  Great, great, great.

THAT was SCARY!

Mary Downing Hahn is someone I would love to meet.  I JUST missed her at the Gaithersburg Book Festival.  I am so mad.  I totally would have gone.  Not that I could have "met" her but just to hear her speak.  Oh man!  Why didn't I look this time LAST week!  I TOTALLY could have gone down there.  The cover of Took is so creepy!  And then when I saw it was MDH, I couldn't believe it!
This has to be one of her best books.  But then I think about all of the others and think, "is there a best MDH book?!"  They are all fantastic!  From the scary like Deep, Dark and Dangerous to the mysterious like Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls to the made-me-think-so-much Stepping on the Cracks, she has to be one of the best authors ever.
Took takes place in West Virginia where Daniel and his family:  mom, dad and little sister, have just moved.  They think they have moved into their house because they chose it, but a witchy woman has chosen it for them.  This book is just....oh...so SCARY!  Just so good.  Just so so so so so so good!

Guys and Dolls

There aren't really any guys in The Doll in the Garden, except for the brother of Kristi, the little girl who lives next door to the place where Ashley and her mother have just moved.  Oh and the cats!  Both cats in the books are dudes.
As I always tell kids who choose a MDH book, this isn't like Scooby Doo where the "ghost" turns out to be Uncle Joe, so there is a real element of paranormal and scare here.  Doll in the Garden wasn't super scary, but the ghost is real.  This also addresses this issue of the death of a parent (Ashley's dad dies before the story begins) and the death of a friend.  Really good book!

Mary Downing Hahn, is it time for a Newbery?

Where I Belong is the newest book from Mary Downing Hahn and it is more like Stepping on the Cracks than say, All the Lovely Bad Ones or Deep and Dark and Dangerous.

But where I belong is like all of the Mary Downing Hahn books I have read in that I couldn't put it down.  Real characters, so well written and original.  Easy to recommend to someone who wants a great, great read.  

She is one of those authors whose talents just make me say, "wow."  Hahn has never won a Newbery that I could see, or an Honor, but she should have either taken the whole deal or gotten an Honor for Stepping on the Cracks, for sure.  I really feel that she has a good chance this year with this moving story of a young boy who has been bounced around from foster home to foster home and put up with misery at school.  Now he finds himself looking for the Green Man in the woods near his current home.  I am not good at summing up books, and there is no need to, so I will only say that this book was excellent.  And if Newbery doesn't pull another 1954, then it should get some kind of recognition.   

Nothing is Black and White (SPOILERS)

I had a visceral reaction when I realized that this book was about a deserter from WW2.  The thing is, had it been the Vietnam War, okay, sure, we have heard that all before, right?  And as Waylon sang:
and the men
who could not fight 
in a war
that didn't seem right
you let them come home,
America
But WW2?  That was the "Good War," right?  Did ANYONE desert from that?  Is this fantasy? What? What?  What kind of person would do that?
And then I felt like a real jerk and fool for thinking that way.
See the thing is this.
If you are a Christian, which I am.  So for me, as a Christian, killing is always wrong.  Christ prohibits it.  There really is no "just war" no matter what Augustine said.  Augustine wasn't Christ.
Turns out there were conscientious objectors in WW2.  The thing is, the enemy was so clear in WW2. Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito were evil, evil men.  The hideousness of their actions can't be described. But as Jesus said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul."  Ah, man...it is so hard.  As you know, I am a fierce, fierce patriot.  I have so much respect and thanks for our veterans and servicemen and women.  And I am not sitting in judgement of those who follow Christ and serve in the armed forces.  No, no, no.
See.
See how much this books makes one think??
This is a fantastic novel.  So not preachy.  No easy answers.  And no cliches.  Fantastic.
There is just so much in here.
Stepping on the Cracks should be required reading.   And then required discussion should follow.

Once Again

I was totally creeped out by another Mary Downing Hahn book!  Wait Till Helen Comes is a great ghost story and the ghost is an evil child.  There is nothing scarier than an evil child.  I think back to the time I was chased mercilessly through Freddy's Haunts by a child with a chainsaw.  And then there was the pretty tasteless but truly frightening room at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum full of children.  I still have nightmares. This book was published in 1987 but it isn't dated at all and all of Hahn's books are worth reading and wonderful! 

Once Again...

After I finish a MDH book, I think, "man, these are creepy!" and I think that kids should know that if they scare easy, they might want to take it slow.  The deal is, with a book like Deep and Dark and Dangerous, the scares aren't cheap and cheesy.  The danger is real, the crimes are real.  Na, ghosts aren't real, but this issues dealt with in D and D and D are disturbing!  A little girl died many years ago, drowning in the lake.  Ali's mom and aunt know more about her death than they are letting on.  The adults aren't always good guys in MDH books, they are realistic.  Creepy ghost story.  I loved it.

When Recommending a Mary Downing Hahn Book

Even though many of her books, like All the Lovely Bad Ones,  are children's fiction, they are scary!  And they deal with really scary stuff.  All the Lovely Bad Ones is all about murder and suicide and child abuse and there's no "oh it was just a joke" or something like that ending.  This book is for kids who really don't mind the scary stuff, ghosts or reality.

The Class of '57

One of my most favorite songs is this one.   If you have graduated from high school more than fifteen years ago, just put your own year in there for '57 and you will love it, too, for the line, "Things get complicated when you get past eighteen." is one that we all know is true.
Nora, the main character in Mister Death's Blue-eyed Girls, is from the class of '57 and most of the book is told from her perspective, regarding the events that took place the summer before her senior year.  On the last day of school in June, Nora's two friends, one a senior and the other a few years younger, are shot to death in the woods while walking to school.  The story is based on similar events in Mary Downing Hahn's own life.
I couldn't put this book down.  I loved every page.  I was horrified by the way in which the priest in this book acts, but I know that some priests do believe as this priest did, both back then, and today.   This is a great book for a discussion on theodicy.  I wish I could have been the pastor that Nora went to back then in the summer of '56.  I don't know if I would have helped, but I would have given her a very different take on the events of that summer, as I have a very different understanding of the cause of earthly suffering, given by the grace of God and the study of the Scriptures.
This book really takes you back in time.  I've yet to find a book by Hahn that I didn't love, even though this is quite different from her others.

Mary Downing Hahn IS Scary!

I've read a few MDH books and I always end up shivering and thinking, "Man...this is a creepy story!" and when I recommend them to kids I am always sure to ask if they mind getting creeped out, because even though MDH is a children's author, there is a lot of misery and mayhem in the books that I have read.    The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall is no exception.  I listened to this one on cd and it is narrated by Sarah Coomes and she does a terrific job.  I am not much for off-putting Briticisms and so at first I felt like Prof. Higgins wondering, "Why can't the English learn to speak!" but after awhile I was so caught up in the story and the way that Coomes read it that I forgot about it.  Also, she does a great job on the Uncle's voice!  The grammar of the servant girl, "Is her here?  Where is her?" reminded me of a foster "parent" I used to know.  This "parent" really talked that way and she had a master's degree which makes you wonder.  But after I put that out of my head, I was able to enjoy this story of Florence, a young orphan who lived in a orphanage until her Uncle sent for her to live at the family's estate, Crutchfield Hall.  The thing about Crutchfield Hall though, is that it is haunted by a NASTY ghost.  The ghost of Sophie, her twelve year old cousin who died in an accident the year before.  Sophie is ghastly and wants to cause serious harm to her brother.  She believes that if he dies, she will come back to life.  Great, great book.